


Like Real People Do

by MegaWallflower



Series: Smile for the Camera [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Fanart, Introspection, Kissing, Laughter, M/M, POV Hatake Kakashi, Photo Shoots, Photography, Pining, Secret Identity, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 15:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20910260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/pseuds/MegaWallflower
Summary: Sukea has a private photoshoot with his favorite model, Might Guy.





	Like Real People Do

“Wait, wait! Hold on, Sukea! I'm not ready yet!” Guy insisted, even as Sukea was lining up his shot. He made a weak attempt at hiding behind his borrowed scarf, undermined by his helpless peals of laughter.

Sukea held the camera tightly in his hands, finger poised above the button, eyes tracking across Guy’s face. It had taken a bit of convincing, but he had finally gotten Guy out of that green jumpsuit and into more casual clothes. He even had Guy’s hair slicked back. Sukea was going to make the most of this impromptu photoshoot.

Hiding behind a camera lens, Sukea could brazenly admire Guy as much as he wanted to, memorize everything with his uncovered sharingan; Guy’s mouth, his eyelashes, the sharp line of his jaw. He focused his attention on this moment, because, _finally_, Guy moved the scarf out of the way, smiled softly, and batted his long eyelashes. Sukea perked up at that, brows rising and eyes brightening.

The dulled flash stuttered to life as he snapped another photo.

“What sort of scoop are you even trying to get out of dressing me up in all these weird clothes, anyway? My jumpsuit is just fine! You don’t work for some kind of gravure magazine, do you?”

Sukea sighed, simultaneously charmed and exasperated. “I told you, I’m freelance.”

“In other words, that’s a ‘maybe’?” Guy’s lips twisted into that knowing sort of smile that made Sukea suspect he was just being teased. There was no missing the mischievous, playful quality in Guy’s voice. It was enough to elicit a wry snicker from Sukea.

“Sure. ‘Maybe,’” Sukea’s joked back, trying to angle Guy’s face properly for the next photo. "Will you stop complaining and let me work already?”

Guy relented and let Sukea gently guide him forward. “Of course! Don’t let me stop you! I promised to let you take some pictures, and I’m a man of my word!”

Sukea leaned in closer, stroking his jaw faintly with his thumb, admiring the giddy, shaky smile on Guy’s face, lips pursed to try to stifle the faintest of hint of a giggle. Was Guy ticklish or just having fun? Sukea traced his right index finger further down his chin and neck until he made Guy shake with laughter again, deciding that Guy was both.

Sukea grinned and snapped another shot, making sure that shadows wouldn’t shroud Guy’s face while he had his fit of laughter.

Some part of Kakashi wanted to move away, to insert distance between himself and this thing he'd created between “Sukea” and Guy. Normally, the distance would be established already, a silent barrier made of Kakashi’s outward aloofness and Guy’s outward silliness, to forever go unspoken. An understanding that neither of them actually believed in the concept of a future enough to try to create anything lasting.

This arrangement was throwing him off, lately. Sukea wasn’t aloof.

Kakashi wanted to move away, but something kept Sukea tethered to Guy, close enough to hear his breath hitch slightly at the sound of the camera clicks and flashes. Guy was used to Sukea enough to let him crash in his apartment like this, but he still seemed off-put by the camera, somehow.

“You always seem like you’re having so much fun with your photography,” Guy remarked, making what he probably thought was an elegant, mature pose. It wasn’t, but Sukea took the picture anyway. “The world must look so beautiful through that lens.”

The word lodged itself in Sukea’s mind. _Beautiful_.

The sharingan’s photographic memory kept him from forgetting quite a few things that weren’t exactly beautiful about this world. Its tomoe whirled beneath his grey contact lens. “Beautiful things are beautiful through it. I need a good model to make anything impressive,” Sukea said simply, sentiment overriding a momentary lapse in his rationality. His eyes held Guy’s gaze, softening at the sight of his lingering smile and reddening cheeks.

Sukea set his camera down on Guy’s windowsill, between a potted sunflower and Mr. Ukki. Guy was babysitting that for him again. It would be nice if Kakashi could remember to thank him for that later. The closest he would get was probably a sarcastic remark about how much better Kakashi’s plant looked than Guy’s when they were side by side like that, and then it would turn into a playful argument, then a competition.

Those were the walls Kakashi kept himself behind.

Sukea could be a bit more honest. “Beautiful things, like…” he heard himself say.

With the tip of his finger, he brushed a rebellious lock of dark hair from Guy’s face. The beast beamed, glowing with joy. Sukea smiled back, drowning in the starless night in his eyes. “Like your smile. You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.”

Not missing a beat, Guy winked and answered, “You must not take photos of your own smile very often, then! I’d say the two of us are tied!”

Sukea pressed his thumb to Guy’s mouth to hush him. “It’s not a competition,” he whispered, tapping his lips softly, “Because if it was, I already know I would win.” He could feel Guy’s dopey smile widen.

Suddenly aware of himself, Sukea recoiled away and hid his eyes under the fringe of his wig. “I’m kidding. I’m not about to challenge an active jonin to any kind of fight,” he amended smoothly. If they broached that topic, either Kakashi would blow his cover or Sukea would have to swallow his pride and throw a match with Guy.

Guy brushed it off easily with a laugh. “Don’t think of me as a shinobi, for the moment! Think of me simply as your very beautiful model and friend!”

Sukea sighed in relief. It felt absolutely ridiculous, but he couldn’t help but find comfort in this, couldn’t help but feel happy here with Guy. It wouldn’t be like Kakashi to get this close, even when he wanted to. It was that fledgling desire that softened him, and although Kakashi might have called it weakness once, he wasn’t sure what Sukea would call it now.

This was all he could do; all he could have. It was better than nothing. But he didn’t know whether he wanted to spend the rest of his time with Guy in this annoying state of _almost_, spinning his wheels and tracing the same old path.

_If nothing else,_ he realized as he pulled his hand away from Guy’s lips, _he wanted to kiss Guy._

Sukea wasn’t sure why his emotions were getting the better of him all of a sudden. Kakashi had always had feelings for Guy, but they were never a problem. He was a master at suppressing his emotions. After everything they had been through, it would have been harder not to fall in love with Guy. His carefree laughter, his expressive gestures, his sparkling eyes, his endless spunk, his air of mystery, his stubborn devotion, the way he was just always _there_…

But as much as he loved Guy, he hated him more. Or at least, he _wanted_ to hate the man whose abilities were literally suicidal. He wanted to despise him for the fact that he was almost definitely going to have to watch Guy kill himself someday, and probably for Kakashi’s sake. Kakashi had seen so much death, he never thought he would really find any beauty that could exist in self destruction.

But Guy…

His eyes told stories with dangerous beginnings and lost endings, where every page was breathing with color. In every fight, Guy just came out of it looking fuller of life than ever.

Maybe there was something that was beautiful about that.

Maybe Kakashi’s feelings for Guy were deeper than they used to be.

Maybe Kakashi wasn’t as skilled at suppressing those feeling as he always thought he was.

Maybe Sukea really, really, _really_ wanted to kiss Guy right now.

His heartbeat sped as a small part of him wondered whether kissing would be soft or if even Guy’s lips were calloused and hard like the rest of his body. Either way, this was Guy. He was a surprisingly gentle, deliberate person who never had anything but a kind word to say about his comrades. About Kakashi especially.

Now that the strange curiosity was there, the air around Sukea and Guy felt charged. A simple infatuation couldn’t account for the odd tension that had built up, crept up on him in all the time Kakashi had wasted. It was warm and dizzying, swirling around Sukea like a high and settling like dead weight in his stomach.

He wanted to kiss Guy.

"Sukea...?" Guy asked, tilting his head. It was so weird not to see his hair ripple with every move he made. “You haven’t taken a picture for a while. Are you finished already?”

Sukea broke his gaze away, looking down to avoid Guy’s eyes. “I might have really messed up…” he muttered to himself.

“Messed what up?” Guy asked.

Sukea ignored the question by distracting himself with Guy’s outfit. He mostly looked handsome: the clothes accented his broad shoulders, his trim waist, his muscular build. But the hair might have been a bad idea. It was way too plain for Guy. Sukea wanted to muss it up with his fingers until all the styling fell out.

He reached over Guy’s shoulder to where his hair was slicked back to give one of Guy’s little curlicues of misplaced hair a tug. “Wha—Hey! Sukea!” Guy whined.

“I’m fixing it.” He knew he was just giving Guy a rough time, messing up the hairstyle they had put so much time and effort into getting this way.

“I thought that’s what we spent all morning doing!”

“I’m fixing it again.”

Guy just rolled his eyes and let Sukea work, breathing out a sigh through his nose. “Rather than a reporter, I think you should have pursued hairstyling after you put your shinobi days behind you,” he quipped, and this time when his mouth quirked, there was a bit more humor to it.

Sukea pushed back the twists of hair with his thumbs, brushing them up with the rest of Guy’s bangs and smoothing them into place. His hands lingered a little longer than they needed to after each teasing pull.

It took a bit of effort. The gel in Guy’s hair had started to dry, but it was a hot day, even in Guy’s apartment, and Sukea’s fingers smeared across sweat on Guy’s brow enough to make the errant bits of hair fall back into place.

He ran his fingers through to loosen the short, black hair slowly until it fell in a glossy curtain over his ears, locks unfurling across the slope of his cheekbones. 

When he pulled his hands away, Guy’s bowl-cut was finally back again, just like it belonged, not a strand out of place. Sukea brightened, mesmerized. Guy really did look best this way. This was the Guy he knew so well.

He loved this hair and he really loved this man. “This style really does suit you best.”

Guy’s eyebrows furrowed and his eyes squinted in a grin that Kakashi recognized, the one that didn't mean joy so much as it meant playful judgment. It was the look Kakashi got when he lost a challenge. “In other words, my look is just fine. I was right from the start.”

It took every ounce of control in Sukea’s body not to roll his eyes at that. “Yes. Good thing we’re not competitors or shinobi, or that might count for something.”

Guy let out a frustrated huff. Sukea couldn’t actually engage him in their usual theatrics, but it looked like he’d still be more than able to turn things around on him whenever Guy tried to egg him on. It was a small consolation, since Guy was more-or-less winning right now, whether he knew it or not.

He could see in Guy’s eyes that he had no idea what he is doing to Sukea. He couldn’t tell that Sukea was coming a bit undone from the temptation of their current situation. Sukea was playing with fire. He was the one playing with Guy, and somehow, he was losing. Sukea tried to find his composure. “I might have overestimated myself this time…”

Sukea brought his hand back up to twist his fingers into his hair, twining a single black curl of it around and around in nervous distraction. Guy reached out, a quick motion Sukea saw through the corner of his eyes. He felt Guy’s fingertips on his wrist, brushing against the back of his hand, pulling it down and stilling the nervous habit.

“You’re very skilled,” Guy said, voice low and full of conviction, placing the whole of his belief in his pep talk. Guy never half-assed anything, especially not encouragement. Sukea tried not to read too much into it. “Be confident in your skills and in yourself! As a photographer, and probably as a shinobi, you’re definitely among the elite! You should never doubt your power and your worth, my friend! Believe me when I say I believe in you!”

His resolute pout and dark eyes were deadly serious –or, as serious as Guy was capable of being outside of life-or-death situations.

A laugh sounded out in the empty room, the bubbling sort of giggle that Sukea was surprised to realize was coming from himself. “I know that. I’m good at what I do,” Sukea said. “I’ve travel east and west finding scoops. I know what I’m doing.”

“Oh! I get it, then! You’re getting cold feet. You’ve lost your nerve, scared speechless at the sight of my otherworldly beauty!”

“Yeah. That’s it,” Sukea whispered sarcastically, under-selling the feeling because he wasn’t about to admit how right Guy was. “I’m just too captivated.”

“Well! You’re going to persevere even in the face of a face like mine, right, my friend?” Guy winked again. “You’re retired as a shinobi, but you don’t strike me as a coward.”

It was just another one of Guy’s encouraging taunts, light and playful and teasing in the same way Guy always was. There was a little bit of bite to it, but nothing too hard. It was the sort of challenge Kakashi would answer by rolling his eyes and acting like it was akin to pulling teeth, even though he’d still go along with it and secretly enjoy it.

It was the sort of challenge Sukea was willing to rise to meet, much more enthusiastically than Kakashi would. “Of course.”

“That’s the spirit! Take pride in your photography! Have fun with it!”

It was easy to deflect and change the subject, as always. Guy had already done it for him. The photographs were the last thing on Sukea’s mind right now. He had almost forgotten all about them. If he felt like it, he could drop the topic entirely and just get back to their photographs.

But Sukea was still focused on the words caught in his throat, on the fact that this wasn’t real and it would be so easy and meaningless to press Sukea’s lips against Guy’s.

The thoughts were paralyzing for Kakashi. They wouldn’t be so insurmountable for Rin, their fearless medic, or for Obito, always able to barrel ahead with little concern for what anyone else will think. Kakashi had always admired that about them, wondered sometimes how he might take a little of that for himself, their bravery and their confidence and their ability to love with every ounce of their being. He could imagine Obito laughing at him for being indecisive or Rin feeling sorry for his chronic emotional constipation.

But Sukea was fake. Maybe he could do it.

Maybe he might as well do it. He could afford to be reckless. He pushed his nerves down and once again looked Guy directly in his angular, slightly concerned face. "I wasn’t upset about the photographs. I was just thinking that there was something else I wanted to try.”

Guy’s lips twitched like he was trying not to laugh. “Is that really it? Are you suddenly getting shy after you already made me try on all these clothes for you? Now I’m the one getting worried,” he joked. His eyes softened and he added, far too sincerely, “All you have to do is ask. There’s very little I wouldn’t do for you.”

Guy didn’t mean anything deep by that, but it sent a chill down Sukea’s spine. He loved this man so, so much.

So, he caved in. He settled comfortably, facing Guy in a way he had never done before with his usual air of confidence. He wasn’t ready to finally give in and tell him everything, but he could at least indulge a bit. Even though Kakashi was not here. Even though he would never be.

“Kiss me.”

All at once Guy’s cheeks burned, and Sukea almost wanted to take the words back. Instead, he grabbed his camera and snapped another picture, because the shock on Guy’s face was cute.

Guy made a muffled, scandalized squeal, but his expression eventually softened. He seemed less surprised than Sukea would have expected. "For a photograph? Sure," Guy supplied, with a grin and a shrug, like it was the easiest thing in the world. "I don't mind."

"…That was easy. Are you sure?" Sukea insisted, suddenly conflicted. “I just figured it would make an interesting shot, if I time it right."

A carefree thumbs-up and another pep talk, “I’m happy to help bring your youthful artistic vision to fruition!”

Was Guy always that dedicated to the arts? "Great. I owe you one," Sukea said, smiling in spite of himself. It was easy to sound more certain and more confident about this than he actually was. Sukea was a false pretense. This wasn’t real, even if the lovestruck warmth spreading through him definitely was. "Let me... Just..."

Sukea set up the camera against a flat surface and tinkered with its settings.

While he waited, Guy simply smiled warmly, like sunrise and dawn break, and Sukea thought that if he'd made it this far, he might as well finish.

Guy reached forward to stroke a lock of brown hair back from his face, tucking it behind his ear. “Is something wrong?”

Even though this was fake, Sukea’s heart pounded wildly. “I was just thinking about how I want the shot to look. There’s a lot to consider.” Sukea’s fingers traced the side of Guy’s neck, brushed over his Adam’s apple, rose to his chin, and he belatedly realized that Guy’s pulse was racing, too. Sukea’s smile quirked. “The framing, the colors, the way the light is hitting you, the angle of your face…” He leaned in, stroking Guy’s jaw gently with his thumb, admiring those lips again. “I’ve got it. Close your eyes.”

Guy did so obediently, inching forward to close the very narrow gap between them. Sukea placed the smallest of kisses on the corner of his mouth, then another, back to the center, lips just barely brushing lips in a whisper more than a kiss. It sent tendrils of heat through Sukea.

“Did you get the picture?” Guy’s eyes peeked open.

Sukea kept a hand on the nape of Guy’s neck to keep him from pulling away yet. “That was just a warm-up. I needed to visualize it.”

He could feel Guy’s laughter fan out against his cheeks. “Artists are particular, aren’t they!”

“We can be. Sometimes.” Tinkering with the camera settings again, Sukea said, “I’ll set the timer for ten seconds. You can hold a pose for that long, right?”

“Easily! In one of my challenges with Kakashi, I managed to be still and quiet for hours on end!” Guy bragged.

“Is that so? And who won that challenge?”

“I… I don’t remember. I’d have to check.”

“Really? Ah, I think I remember hearing something about it, actually… Pretty sure that point went to Ka—”

He was interrupted by Guy’s frantic squeaks and excitable flailing. “We should focus on the matter at hand! This natural lighting won’t last forever!”

The familiar banter calmed them both down a little bit. Sukea laughed and leaned in, tugging Guy forward by his scarf with one hand while the fingertips of his other hand pressed the button to start the timer. “Alright. Say cheese.” Sukea kept his eyes open in that moment, but Guy closed his, letting his long eyelashes flutter down as his lips brushed against Sukea’s lips, butterfly-light and only a little uncertain.

It was strangely soft. The motion of his mouth was subtle, inviting, and Sukea forgot what it was he'd been so scared of. He even forgot to worry about the fact that his and Guy’s first (only?) kiss would be under a false pretense. It was the farthest thing from his mind.

Guy had a tenderness that he doubted anyone else could match. A side of him Kakashi wished he could appreciate more without making himself vulnerable.

He could trust Guy to watch his back on the battlefield and to humor strange requests on a whim; he could trust Guy with this, with Sukea’s inexperience and with a little piece of Sukea’s heart.

Because Kakashi had wanted this for years, and Sukea wasn’t real.

On one hand, maybe Guy deserved better than that. He deserved the world.

But then again, maybe Guy didn’t deserve anything more than this, really. He was still planning on throwing his life away. He was the last person who would have some grand idea for a future in his sights.

Guy was just a dead man walking, knocking on the gate of death’s door, and Sukea was just a fake man, a wig and some makeup and a false voice and a camera. He’d never planned to do anything with these feelings. But with Guy’s lips against his, he thought that made he'd finally gotten close enough.

Being this close together, closing his eyes and pressing in closer and wondering what he would even do with these photographs and where he would hide them, was fine. It was almost funny.

A dead man and a fake man made quite the pair.

**Author's Note:**

> Drawing commissioned from the talented viktormaru on tumblr!


End file.
